LOOKING AT THE LAW AND POLICY OF RECYCLING IN MALAYSIA
By
Ad'lean binti Mohd Yusof (2004283002) Heleyaniiza binti Mohd Said (2002375752)
Ruzanna binti Ahmad (2004215834)
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Bachelor in Legal Studies (Hons)
Universiti Teknologi MARA Faculty of Law
October 2006
The students/authors confirm that the work submitted is their own and that appropriate credit has been given where reference has been made to the work of others.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Completing this research was a challenging task for all of us. Therefore, we would like to express our deepest gratitude to God Almighty who makes all things possible and gives us the desire, ability, opportunities and the motivation to complete this research on time.
This research was the result of the efforts of many individuals. Firstly, we would like to thank Puan Norha Abu Hanifah, our lecturer who gave us guidelines in completing this research and inspired us to be good researchers. Not to forget, her willingness to be interviewed as to get the information. Our Supervisor, Madam Daleleer Kaur, deserves a special appreciation here for her invaluable guidance, contribution and encouragement.
We are grateful for her willingness to spend her time to help us. Thank you so much for the valuable knowledge and support.
This research cannot be completed without the feedback and co-operation from the staff at Alam Flora Sdn Bhd and Shah Alam Local Council (MBSA). We really appreciate their willingness to help us completing our interview in order to collect all the data and information that we need to complete this research.
We would also like to thank our parents and family for their motivation, support and prayers to ensure that we are able to get excellent results in our studies.
For our friends who always motivate and support us, particularly in times of difficulties, thank you.
IV
ABSTRACT
In Malaysia, the Environment Act is silence on matters relating recycling which deemed to be important.
From this research, one of the problems that arising due to recycling is that the level of awareness is too poor among the citizens, the facilities are not sufficient and adequate in order to encourage people to recycle and mostly, there was no law that governed recycling in Malaysia.
As compared to foreign law such as laws that governs haulers, law which had been divided between recycling materials, recycling provisions on the matters of penalties and others that had been passed by their legislation. This shows that they take recycling as a serious matter. Moreover, they provide sufficient facilities and encourage their citizens to recycle. Further, if the law is not complied with, penalties will be imposed against them.
The level of awareness among their citizens is tremendous where their citizens are more responsible and understand their duties and role to oblige the law. Thus this research will look at the general problems on recycling, comparison between Malaysian law and foreign law such as United States and Japan and recommendations to the loop holes in Malaysian policy.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Declaration ii Acknowledgement iii
Abstract iv Table of Contents v
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
1.0 Introduction 1 1.1 Problem Statement 4 1.2 Objectives of the Study 7 1.3 Literature Review 7 1.4 Methodology 10 1.5 Limitation 11 1.6 Significant of the Study 11
CHAPTER TWO: INTERVIEWS
2.0 Introduction 13 2.1 Interviews 13
2.1.1 Interview One ( Alam Flora Sdn Bhd) 13 2.1.2 Interview Two (Puan Norha Abu Hanifah) 16
2.2 Conclusion 18
1
1.0 INTRODUCTION
Recycling is one of the ways to help the environment, but it must be noted that, it is not just about putting cans and newspaper into a recycle bin. As in late twentieth century, recycling has been one of the best environmental success stories. For example, in the United States, recycling including composting diverted about 30 percent of the solid waste stream from landfills and some others1.
The general public has a narrow view of recycling, but understands some of the broader purposes of recycling. Recycling is most often described as an activity in which people separate their trash (glass, plastic, paper and the residual) for the purpose of reusing the materials or making new products. This is because the general public is caught up in the daily logistics separating their trash and complying with the trash hauler requirements.
Some can distinguish recycling and reusing as parts of the concept, but few address the issue of reducing consumption. When asked about the three R's (reduce, reused, recycled) campaign, a few think that reducing means reducing trash in landfills2.
As in the wake of 'plant more trees' campaign, government had launched a recycling operation. This is a reminder of how serious the degradation of our environment has become. Not many Malaysians realize that, each of us throw away an average of 0.8 kilograms of waste daily3. Malaysia is one of the countries with a high rate of waste generation. Our country generates around 15 000 tones of waste every day, and if this is accumulated together, we have enough waste to fill up the Kuala Lumpur Twin Tower in just 9.5 days.
1 Elden D. Enger, Environmental Science A Study on Interrelationships, Mc Graw Hill Education, 2006, p 429-430.
2 Federal Enviromental Executive,C£ RECYCLING FOCUS GROUPSREPORT.vww.of<x.zov/wpr/ceq.htm (Sept 19,2006)
3 Jenny Eng, Recycle is Better Way, MBSA/ALAM FLORA, 2006, p 1 - 3.
